Corbett: Some would rather collect

HARRISBURG — Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Corbett came under fire Friday when he said some jobless Pennsylvanians would rather collect unemployment than return to work.

During a campaign appearance in Elizabethtown, Lancaster County, Corbett told a reporter from Pennsylvania Public Radio that "the jobs are there," but he'd been told by business owners that, "one of the issues, and I hear it repeatedly – one of the individuals said, 'I can't get workers. People don't want to come back to work while they still have unemployment.' ''

Corbett told the radio outlet that a business owner had "literally" told him that job-seekers were saying they'd "'come back to work when unemployment runs out."

"That's becoming a problem," Corbett said.

Corbett added, "The jobs are there. But if we keep extending unemployment, people are going to sit there … I've literally had construction companies tell me, 'I can't get people to come back to work until … they say, I'll come back to work when unemployment runs out.' "

Both Corbett and Democratic rival Dan Onorato have made reinvigorating the state's economy one of the cornerstones of their campaigns.

In a statement, Onorato pounced, saying, "I don't know what world Tom Corbett is living in."

"Our economy is struggling, families in Pennsylvania are hurting, and Harrisburg insiders like Tom Corbett aren't doing anything to help them," Onorato continued. "Tom Corbett doesn't even recognize there's a problem, so it's no surprise that he has no real plan to improve our economy or actually create the jobs that in his mind already exist."

Corbett campaign spokesman Kevin Harley said Corbett was simply relating a story told by the owner of a plumbing business. He did not name the business.

"All Tom did was repeat what he was told by an employer," Harley said.

Harley then proceeded to refute Onorato's attack.

"The one thing Dan Onorato is an expert in is unemployment," Harley said, claiming that the unemployment rate in Allegheny County where Onorato is county executive had "skyrocketed."

The latest unemployment statistics for May show Allegheny County with an 8.3 percent unemployment rate, much lower than the statewide rate of 9.2 percent.

Kevin Shivers, the executive director of the state branch of the National Federation of Independent Businesses, said he's also heard from small business owners than unemployment benefits are hurting incentives to land jobs.

"As Congress continues to extend benefits, it takes away the incentive to look for work," Shivers said Friday.

But Pennsylvania AFL-CIO President Richard Bloomingdale said that's not true.

"Unemployed workers would rather be working, feeding their families and paying the mortgage than living with the uncertainty of not having a job, earning less than half their wages and going without health care and pensions," Bloomingdale said in a statement.

Bloomingdale also said that unemployment in the building and construction industry is at 30 percent in some areas of the state.

A state resident receiving benefits gets an average weekly payment of about $310, said Troy Thompson, a spokesman for the state Department of Labor & Industry.

"The way it's set up, a person collects roughly half of their former wage," Thompson said. "It's not set up for individuals to get a living income off of."

About 100,000 state residents were dropped from the unemployment rolls when their benefits expired in June. A further 100,000 are expected to lose their benefits in July. And by year's end, about 492,000 people are expected to lose coverage, Thompson said.

The U.S. House has approved a six-month extension in benefits. Republicans in the U.S. Senate successfully filibustered a similar bill before Congress broke for a weeklong July 4 recess, the Associated Press reported.

A little more than 1.3 million people have already lost benefits since the last extension ran out at the end of May, according to the Labor Department. By the end of last week, the number was expected to have jumped to 1.7 million.